The conference on the EU policies on the impact of climate change on the resilienceof cities and regions in the world was held in Chieti, in the Abruzzo Region, on the 5thAprile, organized by AICCRE, Platforma, Covenant of Mayors, CEMR.An International conference with Platforma partners, National and European LAs, to exchange best practice and share experience fighting climate change through decentralized cooperation and to promote peer to peer tool through LGs. The Italian experience after the recent earthquakes compared to resiliency experiences from European and world local authorities.
Climate change and decentralised cooperation: the Italian case
Target group(s) / Audience. -Local and regional governments -Intergovernmental organisations and EU institutions -International government(s) -Civil society organisations -Private sector enterprises link to decentralised cooperation – General public / citizens -Volunteers of civil protection -Students (Liceo/University). Participants Emidio Primavera, Director Civil Protection Department – Region Abruzzo Annalisa Palozzo – Councillor of the Province of Pescara Francesco Chiavaroli, Director of ARTA Giampiero Zinzi, President of the Special Committe Terra deiFuochi, environmental restoration, Ecomafie– Council of the Campania Region Eugenia Mansutti – Covenant of Mayors Fabio Colantonio – Geologist Mercedes Sanchez Salido, International Affairs FEMP Gianluca De Santis, Chamber of Commerce Vittorio Battocchio, Technical Director local authoritiesand Health care of AON spa Luca Tosto – President AIPE Alfonso Ottaviano – Director of the Italian FarmersConfederation of Chieti and Pescara Fabio Travaglini, Director of the UN.I.PM AgitaKaupaza, LALRG, Latvian Association of local Authorities Stefano Fricano, Special Company Development Agency Carla Rey – AICCRE Secretary General Marisa Tiberio –Vice President Chamber of Commerce of Chieti Target countries. EU Member states (Italy, Spain, Latvia) and non EU Member States.
Outputs. Climate change is one of the most urgent challenges of our time. To deal with this problematic issue, local authorities, associations and other non-state actors are stepping up their efforts through initiatives, networks and constant presence in fora where environmental issues and especially climate change are discussed. Local and regional authorities are most directly involved on the consequences of climate change, representing the level of government best suited to take the measures required to adapt territories and minimize the impacts of climate change. Never as on the issue of climate change the motto “think global, act local” takes on an extraordinary theoretical and pragmatic accuracy: in recent years in fact, awareness of the deepening interdependence that binds communities from South to North to the planet ecosystem, is growing at the level of international community as well as at local level. The phenomenon of climate change is its most obvious manifestation. The boundaries of states, territories, are increasingly crossed by streams and phenomena that make more and more relatively useless and outdated the systems of the governments based on the principle of the nation and on the concepts inside and outside the boundaries. Climate change goes beyond the administrative borders of the public authorities. AICCRE, CEMR, PLATFORMA, UCLG, have stepped up efforts to make sure that the needs and strengths of the territories were taken into account in the negotiations on environment and climate change. The European Commission has repeatedly, through documents and initiatives, recognized the role of the territories in the fight against climate change. In its Climate and Energy package, for example, the European Commission has stressed the key role that cities – and more particularly those involved in the Covenant of Mayors – have in the realization of the European strategy for low-emission mobility, which is an industry framework for the coming years. Although this is a matter of global nature, the interventions for the consequences of climate change are implemented primarily at local level. We came to the awareness that the environment is a complex ecosystem where the local is deeply embedded in the global economy. Communities are rooted and dependent on this ecosystem. Cooperation therefore is necessary to govern together the global and the local village to preserve and improve sustainable living conditions.
L'impatto dei cambiamenti climatici
Decentralized cooperation is an integral part of this new system of interrelationships. Decentralized cooperation has developed over the years as a new and important dimension of development cooperation. It became more accomplished and specialist because it has gradually institutionalized networks involved in the development field, it has varied the tools for its implementation in all regions of the world and has seen its budgets increase exponentially. In this context, the seminar of Chieti, inter alia, has the aim to provide an opportunity to the actors of decentralized cooperation, to stress and revitalize their action by raising the quality and therefore the impact on a fair development and attentive to the dimensions of sustainable environment at local and global levels. There is now a widespread need to participate in the formation of a governance of changing processes by weaving the different levels of action: local, national, international. In a world marked by strong acceleration in its phenomena of environmental stress and climate change, decentralized cooperation is called upon to strengthen their actions. The seminar is an opportunity for an exchange of know-how between local authorities and will take place in a region, Abruzzo, hit hard by the earthquakes. Recent and authoritative studies link these earthquakes to climate change, which would in fact be able to influence the movements of tectonic plates, which clashing give rise to telluric phenomena. The seminar also will help to reinforce and increase the participation of the population towards environmental issues and to the identification and definition of their needs and their opportunities of solution. The Abruzzo seminar will seek to foster that “common vision” that would allow to increase the coordination of policies and actions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, specifically the goal 13 of the Agenda 2030, “To promote action, at all levels, to combat climate change “, in which are reiterated the concepts expressed earlier, namely that climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national boundaries. Emissions are everywhere and affect us all. It is an issue that requires international co-operation and co-ordinated solutions.
Results. The Seminar was divided in two sessions. The first, where the representatives of the local authorities were defining their role on facing problems as the effects of climate change. The questions addressed were: Thematic session 1: What kind of methodologies exist to foster exchanges of experience and learning opportunities in climate resilience decentralised cooperation? Why does it make sense for European local and regional government to engage with a partner LRG on climate resilience thematic ? How can such activities/ resilience projects at the local level contribute to the objectives of the Paris agreement for climate ? In the second session, the questions addressed to the speakers were: Thematic session 2: How can the EU resilience policies contribute to international exchange of best practices among LRGs? What initiatives exist or could be created to promote international exchanges between disaster affected LRGs? How can the Sendai Framework be used at local level to improve disaster risk reductions? What are the obstacles? The debate was very focused on the importance of the cooperation to face similar tragedies as: earthquakes in Italy in 2016, (Rigopiano in Abruzzo Region, but also Lazio and Marche Regions), the disasters in Colombia (Mocoa) in 2017, but going to the recent past, the in tornado Oklahomain 2013, Taiwan earthquake and Iran earthquake in 2013,the past earthquake in Emilia Romagna in 2012, the avalanche in Pakistan in 2012, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 as the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and Burma in 2010 or in 2009 the Aquila earthquake. The experts made comparisons regarding the decentralized cooperation activities held by the different local authorities and the effects of those tragedies. Natural disaster that must be faced by local authorities and that required cooperation at National level but mostly at local level. At National level you can face the emergency due to the tragedy, you can organize humanitarian helpand to assist with the first aid measures. But, after the first aid, local authorities must react and transform this tragedies in opportunities of growth. The Mayors must make more and more resilient their municipalities.
Then you have environmental damage caused by the men: in Brazil in 2015 with the collapse of two dams and toxic waste released into the air and soil, in US a submarine pipeline with petroleum tide (depending on the oil spill after 1969), or in Europe in Chernobyl the 26 April 1986. To improve this disaster risk reductions local authorities must adopt a prevention plans, based on shared experiences of local authorities around the world. The debate highlighted the importance to raise the awareness of the Agenda 2030 to prevent risks caused by climate change and other disasters. With a focus on environmental aspects. New development Goals and related targets should guide our decisions over the next 15 years. Each of the present public administrators present in the Seminar committed himself to work to ensure the Agenda is applied within their own country and at regional and global level, taking into account the different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. They will respect the national political spaces used to support inclusive and sustainable economic growth, especially for the states in the developing world, while ensuring compliance with standards and international commitments in force, but they were asking to be recognize the importance of regional and sub-regional dimension, regional integration and interconnection economic sustainable development. Because only the regional and local structures can facilitate the passage from policy formulation for sustainable development to the fulfillment of concrete actions at national level. From the panelists it was raise also the request to increase the 20% budget of the UE for the climate theme. The consider the environmental as the main issue to develop at European level, as they feel that cooperating and participating at eu-projects develops their capability to face the problems sharing the best practices at European level. At this point the present of FEMP and LALRG representatives was stimulating the local administrators to look at different experiences and to find common actions to develop in their cities.
Sustainability. The participations of many students from Liceo of agro-economy ensured that those topics will be discussed after the event, as the presence of volunteers suggests that the shared experienced will be taken into account in case of new emergencies but also as best practice to prevent them. The participation instead of many LGs confirms the need to raise the awareness on the Agenda 2030 and SDGs stimulating best practice between them. It was also clear the need to include their citizens in the debates, due to their active role during the debate. Particular value-added elements. The principle elements was the interest of younger generations to develop discussions on important issues such as to fightinequalities, to build inclusive cities, to develop resiliency, to achieve peace fighting the conflicts, to ensure the sustainability of the planet. To ensure that all the human being could live a prosperous life and that the economic, social, technical development occurs in harmony with the nature.t all human beings can enjoy prosperous lives and satisfactory and that the e Partnership. During the seminar it was proposed by the national Association of SME AIPE, that has activities all around the world, to sign an agreement with AICCRE to ensure education of LRAs regarding best practices in prevention of risks in the field of boilers, methane, GPL, etc.. The agreement Public-Private sector will be signed soon, as the cooperation to raise awareness particularly on the SDG 9, 11, 13 and15.